


Two Hearts Between Us

by Briarwitch



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Anal Sex, Bondage, Choking, Feelings, Julian's Route, M/M, Male Apprentice (The Arcana), Multi, Oral Sex, Polyamory, Threesome - M/M/M, Upright End
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 00:08:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20367382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briarwitch/pseuds/Briarwitch
Summary: After the events of Julian's route, Julian and the Apprentice both agree that they both love Asra and that he should be part of their relationship. Julian and Asra still have some old drama to work through before things can go smoothly though.





	Two Hearts Between Us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bananimosity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananimosity/gifts).

> The Apprentice is male and named Joaquin

“Alright,” Julian said, clasping his hands behind his back as he started to pace back and forth across the dark hardwood of the shop’s main room. It was early evening, and the sunlight slanted through the window, catching drops of crystal hanging there and sending rainbows dancing through the room. Julian moved in and out of the swaying colors. “Alright, he repeated, eyes narrowed with focus. “Here’s what we do.”  
“Go on,” Joaquin said from his seat in a cushioned alcove, trying and failing to repress an amused smile. Julian didn’t seem to notice.  
“What we do,” Julian said, “is wait for him to get comfortable, and then I will burst through the door like so.” He stopped and threw his arm out, as if whipping his currently absent coat dramatically behind himself, head tilted raucously, a debonair smile on his face. A rainbow drifted over his cheek, coloring his eye patch green and purple. “And I’ll say, Asra, I must speak with you!”  
“Uh, huh,” Joaquin said, biting his lip to hold back laugh.  
“And then, that’s when you come up behind him and wrap your arms around his shoulders,” Julian said, stepping towards Joaquin and bending forward. He placed his hands on the frame of the alcove and smiled down at him, voice dropping to a low purr. “And you say, we need to speak with you.”  
“That’s what I do, is it?” Joaquin asked, smiling fondly up at Julian.  
“Yes.” Julian grinned and dropped down, squeezing next to Joaquin on the cushions. “And then you kiss him, and while he’s distracted, I come closer, and put my hands here….”  
“Julian,” Joaquin said as Julian placed his long, pale hands on his chest.  
“… And then I say…”  
“Julian, seriously.”  
Julian paused, frowning. “What’s wrong?”  
Joaquin chuckled and removed Julian’s hands, squeezing them gently. He kissed his cheek, gold, khol-lined eyes sparkling with barely repressed laughter. “Really, Julian, what do you think Asra will do if you approach it like that?”  
Julian narrowed his eyes and grinned. “Be swept off his feet?”  
“Did the dramatics work on him when you two were a thing?”  
“….no, not as such.” Julian glanced away, blushing.  
Joaquin leaned forward and kissed Julian’s neck, making him lean back with a soft moan. He worked his way up his jaw-line and finally to his lips, nibbling slightly. Julian parted them for him. When Joaquin pulled away, Julian was flushed bright red.  
“You are so easy to make blush,” Joaquin laughed.  
Julian squawked indignantly and smoothed his hair down. “I beg to differ,” he muttered. He leaned back with a sigh. “I suppose you’re probably right, about Asra,” he conceded. He glanced at Joaquin, looking suddenly vulnerable. “You… you’re sure he’s… open to this, right? We didn’t exactly… end things on pleasant terms.”  
“Things are different now,” Joaquin assured him. “You two do get along, you know, you just need…hmmm… someone to translate.”  
Julian snorted. “I certainly conceded that Asra needs a translator.”  
“Asra?”  
Joaquin looked up expectantly at the little voice. Julian frowned, confused, until he followed Joaquin’s line of sight and saw Faust slithering down from the rafters. She slipped out of the shadows and wrapped around Joaquin’s extended wrist. She eyed Julian with surprisingly readable mischief.  
“Squeezes?” Faust hissed.  
Julian glanced from Joaquin to the snake and back. “Did she, uh, say something?”  
Joaquin shot him a grin. “She’s asking for squeezes.”  
Julian flinched, grimacing, and Faust’s little red eyes sparkled with humor.  
“How much did you hear, Faust?” Joaquin asked.  
“All,” the snake said.  
“And?”  
She flicked her tongue at him, tickling his cheek. “Is good. Make Asra happy.”  
“See?” Joaquin said. “Faust agrees with me.  
“So you say,” Julian started, then suddenly blanched. “Wait, she didn’t tell him, did she?” he asked, eyes widening.  
“Not yet,” Faust replied.  
“Please don’t, Faust,” Joaquin said. “We want to ask him ourselves.”  
“Secret.” Faust bobbed her head amiably.  
Joaquin smiled and rubbed her under her chin. “Will you go tell Asra that we want to talk to him?”  
“What? Now?” Julian exclaimed, wringing his hands nervously. “I… wait, we haven’t even decided what we’re going to say, how to broach the subject, what if…” But Faust had already whipped away, and just like that she was gone.  
“Don’t fret,” Joaquin said. “Really, it’s going to be fine.”  
Julian gave him a nervous smile, then stood up again and resumed pacing.  
Joaquin shook his head and went to go make a pot of Asra’s favorite tea.

Joaquin was just pouring a little tea into a cup to make sure it was ready when someone knocked on the door. Julian made a nervous little sound from his seat at the table. Joaquin gave him a reassuring smile and went to open the door.  
“You don’t have to knock, you know,” Joaquin said, holding the door open for Asra.  
“I wouldn’t intrude like that,” Asra said as he stepped inside.  
“Never stopped me,” Julian called from the back room.  
“Yes, I know,” Asra said, quirking an eyebrow. He sniffed. “Lapsong?” he asked, smiling.  
Joaquin bowed him towards the back room, making Asra laugh. “Goodness, don’t let his dramatics rub off on you more than they already have,” he said, heading for the table. Julian grinned, opened his mouth to say something, then seemed to think better of it and poured the smoky-smelling tea as Joaquin and Asra sat down.  
“So what’s the big secret then?” Asra asked as he sipped at his tea, gaze slipping from Julian to Joaquin. “Faust keeps saying there is one, but won’t deign to elaborate.”  
Faust poked her head from under Asra’s collar and gave a knowing wink. “Secret keeper,” she hissed.  
“Oh that,” Joaquin said, blowing his tea to cool it. “Not too much of a secret. We just want you to move back in.”  
Julian chocked on his tea.  
Asra blinked, startled, as Julian coughed and set his tea cup down.  
“Not how I would have put it,” Julian wheezed.  
“Yes, I know that, dear,” Joaquin said, giving him a fond smile before turning back to Asra.  
Asra managed to recover from his surprise. “I… now that would be intruding,” he said, cheeks flushing.  
Joaquin took the blush as a good sign. “No it wouldn’t.”  
Asra glanced away, expression purposefully distant. Sensing that he might disappear, Joaquin took his hand in his. Asra looked back up at him. “I love you, Asra. How could I not? And Julian loves you too, you know that.”  
Asra glanced at Julian, who had gone bright red and was examining the grain of the table. A small smile flickered over Asra lips before vanishing. “Please don’t feel obligat…”  
Joaquin kissed his fingers, shutting him up. “We are asking you out, Asra,” he said, holding Asra’s gaze. “Because we both agree that you’re kind, talented, and sexy as hell.”  
Faust slithered out of Asra’s clothes and across his shoulders, lifting her head up to stare at him. Joaquin couldn’t tell if she spoke with him privately or if she was merely waiting for an answer, but a moment later Asra smiled. “Well, how could I say no to that?” he asked softly.  
Joaquin grinned and Julian gave a whoop. “See, I told you there was nothing to worry about,” he told Joaquin. Asra smiled and sipped his tea.

Asra moved back in after a month—enough time to make sure that the relationship really would work out as Joaquin was so confident it would, and to knock down the wall between the shop and Julian’s clinic to give them a little more living space. Not a lot of extra space, but Asra had a plan to convert the roof into a garden space. He quickly roped his father and Portia into helping out.  
It wasn’t perfect of course. Julian still had his moody moments, and Asra could still be distant and snide. Sometimes Joaquin lost his temper with both of them for different reasons, but it was all normal relationship stuff. There was another thing too; though Joaquin would spend time with them together or separately, they never seemed to want to be with each other without him. Joaquin considered working on that, but decided not to pry just yet. After all, they wouldn’t have a choice soon—Selasi had asked Joaquin to come with him to the Southern Merchants fair. Joaquin had happily agreed to help his favorite baker while on the road.  
Asra and Julian hadn’t been exactly thrilled to find out that he was going alone—He wouldn’t let Julian leave his patients at the clinic in the lurch, and had insisted that Asra watch the shop. Maybe he was being silly, but the truth was that he had always had one or both of them with him for as long as he could remember. The prospect of traveling alone—even if alone meant with Selasi—was both exciting and a little frightening. He wanted to prove to himself that he could do it.  
He didn’t say that, but he had a feeling that Asra suspected. He fussed less then Julian, at least, who insisted that Joaquin take Malak if he wasn’t going to take them. Joaquin agreed to that concession, and soon one bright summer morning he and the raven waved goodbye from the back of Selasi’s wagon.

Julian had known that he’d miss Joaquin, but if he had made a list of all the things he would miss the most, he wouldn’t have expected Joaquin just being there to be one of the top rankers. But it was hard, being in his office at the clinic and knowing that Joaquin wasn’t just right through the back door. Asra certainly never poked his head in to ask how he was doing, or brought him tea. And when the clinic closed and Julian came home, Asra barely ever looked up at him, or the shop was empty all together.  
It made him feel… well, the way he’d felt before he had Joaquin. Kind of empty, and listless. He tried going out drinking when it got bad, but even that wasn’t the same without Joaquin’s big laugh to fill bar. It would have been better if there was a show going on, but the community theater was having its usual two week break between productions, and Julian didn’t even have auditions to take his mind off of his sucking depression.  
By the end of the week he was practically bursting with the need to vent. Reminding himself of what Joaquin always said—that Asra just seemed uninterested and wasn’t really—he went to go find the magician in the bedroom.  
Asra glanced up from where he sat on the bed, knitting one of his long, thin tubes that he and Joaquin insisted were snake sweaters. Julian had tried explaining that snakes were cold blooded and didn’t have the body heat to make sweater practical, but that hadn’t seemed to matter.  
“Hey,” Asra said.  
“Hey,” Julian said, tossing his coat and gloves aside. “How was the shop?”  
“Quiet.”  
“Woof, lucky,” Julian sighed, falling down on the bed. He started wrestling off his boots. “It was awful today at the clinic. There was this one patient who, get this…” He went off on the rant that he had been itching to go into for days. Sometimes it was very difficult to be patient and level headed when you just wanted to tell your patients that they were being obstinate idiots.  
“…And then he tells me ‘but doctor, clams aren’t shellfish.’ I swear, I almost smacked his puffy head with the leech jar.” He looked over at Asra, hoping to share a moment of exasperation. Asra wasn’t even looking at him, just quietly knitting away. Julian frowned. “Asra.”  
Asra didn’t look up, his needles slowly bobbing up and down.  
Julian sat up and crossed his arms. “Asra!”  
The magician blinked slowly and turned his eyes to Julian. “Yes?”  
“Were you even listening?”  
Asra shrugged fluidly. “You seemed happy to talk. I had a thought to finish.”  
“Why wouldn’t you just tell me that you didn’t want to listen?” Julian asked, standing up and putting his hands on his hips. “Should I be talking to a brick wall? Or Faust?”  
“Tch, you wouldn’t suggest Faust if you could hear her,” Asra laughed, turning back to his knitting.  
Julian went red, then white, his lips pressed in an angry line. Asra didn’t even seem to notice.  
“I guess it doesn’t matter what I do then, huh? It’s all the same.” Julian snarled sarcastically.  
Asra sighed and set aside his knitting to turn board eyes on Julian. “Right, it doesn’t matter what you do, Ilya,” he said. “Your patients will nod and agree and then go right back out to drinking and whoring. They live in a city—leeches aren’t going to fix that.”  
Julian gaped at him. “What the hell, Asra! They’re people. Oh, but I forgot, you don’t care about people, do you?”  
Asra flinched as if struck. His eyes darkened as he looked at Julian. “I care,” he said coldly. Julian couldn’t know that Joaquin had said that to him all that time ago, before the plague had taken him away, back when Asra wanted to leave and he wanted to stay. Julian didn’t know how badly that had stung.  
Julian’s eyes narrowed, sensing that he had crossed some line but not understanding how or why. “Well you certainly don’t act like it.”  
Asra sucked in a breath and let the anger go. “What is this really about, Ilya? You’ve been getting moodier and moodier all week.” He tilted his head. “Not that being moody is new for you.”  
Julian ignored the jibe. “Oh so you noticed that, did you?” he sneered. “You can stop pretending that I matter to you. I already know that I don’t; you may as well say it.”  
Asra huffed with exasperation and ran a hand through his hair. “Of course you matter, Ilya.”  
“Then how come Joaquin can hear Faust but I can’t?” Julian asked, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. “Answer me that then.”  
Asra stopped, taken aback. “What? What does that have to do with anything?”  
Julian scowled. “It’s because you love him,” he said, voice catching slightly. “You love him and you’re just tolerating me.”  
“Ilya, really?” Asra shook his head, irritation turning to pity. “That’s what this is? You’re jealous?”  
Julian glared. “That is why, isn’t it?”  
“No, of course not.”  
“Then why?”  
Asra opened his mouth, hesitated, then closed it again. He allowed his expression to become withdrawn, archaic. He quirked an amused eyebrow, an expression that he may or may not have picked up from the Magician. “And what if I told you that only a magician would understand?”  
Once upon a time, that might have worked. Now it only made Julian snort derisively. “Bullshit,” he said. “For one, Joaquin’s already taught me a little magic. For two, he told me he couldn’t hear your parent’s familiars.”  
Damn. Asra let loose a heavy sigh. “It’s really not any of your business, Ilya.”  
Julian’s lip curled into an angry snarl.  
“Oh lord,” Asra sighed again and shook his head. “If you’re really going to get hung up on this…” his eyes narrowed. Why was he caving so easily? The truth was… part of him wanted to tell. Part of him couldn’t stand to be the only one who knew. “You can not tell Joaquin.”  
Julian blinked, hostility vanishing in a moment of surprise. “What? Why.”  
Asra’s face twisted into a grimace. “I don’t want him to feel more beholden than he already does,” he said, his hand brushing over his heart. “I…you both already know I had to bring him back. That he was dead.”  
Julian pursed his lips and nodded.  
“The truth is…” Asra’s teeth clicked together as he shut his mouth over his next words, choking on them. But he knew that if he didn’t tell Julian now, it would just hang between them, unsaid, pushing them further apart. “I had his soul, and I had a new body for him, but it needed something more. I had to give up half my heart.”  
Julian stared at him, his already pale face going paler as the meaning of Asra’s words sank in. “What?!”  
“That’s the truth,” Asra said impassively, face not showing the immense fear and relief at finally having the words out in the open. “I have one half and Joaquin has the other.”  
“That’s not… that’s not possible though!”  
Asra shrugged and spread his arms out. “That’s how it is.”  
Julian shook his head. “But that’s not how hearts work! You can’t split them in half and expect them to work. They’re like a pump, you can’t…” he trailed off, hands hooked into claws as he mimed tearing something in two. He lowered his hands and stared at Asra with semi-horrified shock. “What did that do to you?”  
Well, at least he believed him, initial incredulity aside. “As far as I can tell? All it means is that Joaquin can hear Faust.”  
Julian slumped down onto the bed, still shocked. “You gave him your heart.”  
“Yes.”  
“I…son of a whore.” Julian wracked back his fiery hair, catching his eye patch in the process. He tried to untangle it from his hand, snapped himself with the band, then threw it aside with an oath. He put his face in his hands and took a few deep breaths. “How?” he finally asked.  
“It was very complicated,” Asra admitted. “I doubt I could repeat…”  
“No, I mean, how could you stand watching me… how?” Julian demanded looking up with pain filled, mismatched eyes. “It must have felt like I was stealing him away. You love him so much and I… I got in the way.” He grimaced. “I’m still getting in the way.”  
Asra stared at him.  
“God, even back then,” Julian exclaimed, flinging himself back on the pillows and staring wildly at the ceiling. “Even before he died, I was being an idiot, and I, you…” he looked across the big bed at Asra, who only watched him silently, expression still. “I know I made a royal mess of us before,” Julian burst out, his face a blazing crimson. “I don’t expect anything from you now, really. But damn it, Asra, I still have feelings for you, you know!” He stared at Asra, eyes blazing. Asra quirked an eyebrow at him, and that was enough for Julian cover his face with his twitching hands, a mournful sigh hissing out from between his teeth.  
“Well, I should hope so,” Asra said. “You’re one of my boyfriend’s after all.”  
Julian jerked up as if stung. “What?” he asked.  
Asra’s other eyebrow rose to join is bother. “Aren’t you?”  
“I mean, Yes! Of course, I… but you…” he stuttered, staring with his mouth agape.  
Asra sighed and crawled up to sit beside him. He put an arm around Julian’s thin shoulders. Julian tensed, then relaxed into the embrace.  
“Do you really think of me that way?” Julian finally croaked. “Not just…not just Joaquin’s other boyfriend who annoys you?”  
He flinched as Asra laughed. “Ilya, if I didn’t consider you a boyfriend, would I really be here with you without Joaquin? Don’t you think I would have slipped off to the palace or something to wait for him?”  
“I… I don’t know.” Julian said, glancing away as blush crept back into his cheeks. “You’re hard to read.”  
Asra blinked. “No I’m not.”  
Julian stared, lip curling. Then his eyes narrowed and he struck, snake like, bashing Asra’s shoulder with the closest pillow. “Like hell you’re not!” he growled.  
Asra laughed and batted the blow away, grabbing another pillow and smashing Julian upside the head with it. “You should talk! Who knows what you mean half the time?”  
“Bullshit! I am very obvious!” Julian shouted, returning the blow.  
“Obviously a dramatic hoe!” Asra said, blocking Julian’s strike.  
Julian gasped theatrically, hand over his heart. Then he gave Asra a roguish grin and grabbed a second pillow.  
The battle raged, fierce and fast, and ended in a flurry of feathers as one of the pillows burst. Faust, who had been swaying back and forth from the bedpost, gracefully slid down and flowed over the tangle of suddenly still limbs to where Asra and Julian lay in each other’s arm. She slid up Asra’s shoulder just as he brushed a lock of auburn hair out of Julian’s good eye.  
“Now kiss?” Faust asked, flicking her tongue at Julian expectantly.  
Julian’s eyes slid over to Faust. “Does she want something?” he asked.  
Asra rolled his eyes and gently lifted Faust from his shoulder. “Nothing important,” Asra said as he placed her on the headboard.  
Faust gave him a dirty look. “Liar.”  
“Ilya,” Asra said, looking back down at Julian. “You know you’re not the only one who messed things up last time, right?”  
Julian narrowed his eyes. “No?” he said.  
Asra sighed and sat up. Julian shifted so that his head rested in Asra’s lap. Asra brushed Julian’s hair back, and the doctor closed his eyes at the sensation. That made things easier for Asra, somehow, having Julian’s eyes closed. He thought for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “I… I am not proud of how I acted, then,” he admitted. “I like to think that we’re different people than we were four years ago.” He shook his head, banishing the memories of that time, when it was he, Julian and Nadia stuck in the palace with Lucio, and Joaquin was out in the city helping people. Then Asra and Joaquin had fought, and Asra had taken Nadia and Julian off to the south sea, and Joaquin had stayed. Stayed to…  
No, that wasn’t what he was here to talk about.  
“I led you on, back then.” Asra admitted, forcing himself back into the present. “I let you chase after me, never thinking to tell you that I loved someone else. I even encouraged you sometimes. I knew you were serious, and I was being casual, but I never thought I needed to tell you that.”  
Julian opened his eyes, his right sclera that awful, bloody red. Asra wondered with an internal flinch how things might have gone if he hadn’t broken Julian’s heart. If they had worked together like Julian had wanted, would they have realized the cure before Lucio had a chance to feed Julian that plague beetle? Would they… would they have defeated the plague before Joaquin had succumbed to it?  
Something cold flicked in his ear. “Stop,” said Faust. Asra glanced at her with a smile, and she flicked her tongue at him again.  
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry,” Asra said. “And I do love you.”  
Julian blinked, eyes turning bright. “Really?” he squeaked.  
“Oh, Ilya,” Asra sighed, drawing him up. The motion spilled a few tears over Julian’s cheeks and Asra brushed them away. Then he leaned in and kissed him. Julian’s lips felt soft against his. He eased into the kiss, pulling Julian closer, and unzipped the other man’s mouth with his tongue. Julian moaned softly and ran his tongue over Asra’s teeth.  
Asra pulled back, sealing the kiss with one more, chaste peck on Julian’s lips. “Of course I do. You dramatic hoe.”  
Julian snorted and shoved him. Asra laughed and let himself fall back onto the mattress.  
“So,” Asra said, eyelids lowering, a small smiled playing over his lips. He ran a lazy hand over his own hip. “What do you want to do now?”  
“Ah…” Julian said, flushing once more. “What, mm, what do you want to do?”  
Asra smirked and held Julian’s gaze for a long, heady moment. Then he broke into a smile. “Get dinner.”  
Julian blinked a few times, then smiled. “Tch, fine.”  
Asra’s smiled flickered and died. “You… you promise you won’t tell Joaquin, right?”  
Julian’s face softened. “I do.” He offered Asra a hand up, and Asra took it. “But I think that you should tell him. He’d want to know.”  
Asra pursed his lips. “I… I’ll think about it.”

Julian and Asra were on the roof, working on the half-finished garden, when Malak flew up, interrupting their minor argument about whether or not Julian was allowed to raise leeches in the fountain. The raven landed on Julian’s shoulder and quarked affectionately. Before either of them could say anything, a voice called from downstairs. “I’m home! And I have bread!”  
“Joaquin!” Julian gasped and ran for the open door to the stairs, Malak taking off with a cry. Asra smiled and followed more sedately.  
Julian thundered down the stairs, throwing his arms wide as he burst into the main room. “My darling! You’ve returned to me!”  
Joaquin laughed and managed to put down the cloth covered basket on the counter before Julian was upon him. The lanky doctor threw his arms around him, placing one on the small of his back and dipping him as if in a dance. “Tell me, my love, what perils did you face, what evils did you thwart to come once again to my tender side?  
Joaquin laughed and wrapped his arms around Julian, straightening from the dip and lifting Julian into the air. His dark olive skin was baked even darker by the sun, and his face was rough with stubble. His eyes lacked their usual khol makeup, but he was surprisingly free of dirt and sweat, implying he had stopped for a bath somewhere before coming home.  
“Only the most vicious of bakers, seeking to wrest Selasi’s divine right of champion from his noble fist,” he declared, grinning. “But no one can stand against the pureness that is the best pumpkin bread in Vesuvia.” With minimal effort, he adjusted his grip, tossing Julian for only a moment, and then caught him bridal-style.  
Julian managed to sit up and placed both hands on Joaquin’s cheeks, bringing his face close. “Was it worth it then? To be without me?”  
Joaquin returned his gaze, managing to maintain a serious expression. “Each day away was pure torture.” His deadpan cracked, and he broke into a broad grin. “Come here, you,” he said rubbing his rough cheek against Julian’s and making him squawk. He had to put him down as Julian struggled against his kisses.  
“No, no, you aren’t getting away,” Joaquin cooed, holding Julian close. “I love you too much.”  
“Oh, well, when you put it like that.” Julian said, suddenly turning and kissing him back.  
“A reunion fit for the stage,” Asra drawled from the stairway. “Careful not to chew the furniture, Julian.”  
Joaquin looked up from his kisses and gave Asra a mischievous grin. “Uh-oh, Julian, I think Asra’s feeling left out.”  
Julian’s eye sparkled. “Yes, I think so.”  
“Should we get him?”  
“Oh, after you.”  
Asra took a step back. “Now wait a moment…”  
Joaquin and Julian ignored him, hurrying to either side of the magician.  
“Why wait?” Joaquin growled, interlocking their fingers together and snaking his other arm around his waist. He gave Asra a licentious grin. “I’ve been gone three weeks, isn’t that enough waiting?”  
Julian started kissing Asra’s white hair, working his way down to his ear and trailing slim finger’s down the magician’s thigh. “Tempt me not with tricks of prophets,” he cooed in a low, sensuous voice. “Illusions hold only empty promise. Give me what you rarely show, for this I have come to know. That all the wonders of magic lies, behind the glory of violet eyes.”  
Asra raised an eyebrow. “What was that?”  
“Poem I wrote,” Julian said, managing to look up at him through heavy eyelashes, despite being eight inches taller.  
“I can tell.”  
“Come on, then,” Joaquin said, hand straying past Asra’s waist. “You know you want to.” Joaquin cupped him gently, giving a gentle squeeze, just as Julian came from behind to grip his ass. Asra flushed, eyelids fluttering closed.  
“Oh, I suppose,” Asra half-moaned, half sighed, slumping languidly into their combined caresses.  
“Oh, he supposes,” Julian mocked, sucking gently just below Asra’s jaw-line.  
Asra glanced at him with an uncommonly wicked grin. “Well, how could I resist the combined wiles of Joaquin and the majulian?”  
There was a pause.  
“You told him?!” Julian exclaimed as Joaquin burst out laughing. “How could you?!”  
“Ah, I’m sorry,” Joaquin gasped, slumping against Asra. “It was just so funny!”  
“You bastard!”  
“Hey now,” Asra said, burying his fingers in Julian’s hair. He pulled him back and gave him a sultry look. “You’re not allowed to talk to Joaquin that way.”  
A whimper escaped Julian mouth, and Joaquin closed in on him, kissing his lips. “Mmm, yes, let’s get you to the bedroom before you get other impertinent ideas.”  
Asra lifted one of Julian’s hands and started sucking on his finger’s, eliciting a gasp. Somehow they all managed to shuffle upstairs without tripping over each other. Asra gracefully darted ahead so that he was waiting on the bed to catch Julian when Joaquin tossed him down. He guided the doctor’s head back and leaned down for a kiss while Joaquin began undoing Julian’s boots and pants.  
The pants came away, and Asra sat up, pulling Julian’s eye patch off and tossing it expertly onto the bedpost. Joaquin ran his tongue over Julian’s half-engorged cock, making Julian gasp and arch his back. Asra leaned away, stretching for the bedside table, and snatched a vial of oil. He ran a line of kisses down Julian’s long neck as he tipped the warm, cinnamon-scented liquid into his hand.  
Asra and Joaquin synchronized naturally, Joaquin taking Julian into his mouth and Asra slipping his fingers inside at the same time, so that Julian moaned for both of them at once. Together they worked him over, winding him up.  
“Oh, yes, tighter,” Julian gasped, voice rough and strained.  
Joaquin paused, mouth full and both hands on Julian’s hips. Asra had one hand overlapping Joaquin’s own on Julian’s hip, and as far as Joaquin could tell the other was busy with Julian’s ass. Joaquin pulled Julian out of his mouth and looked up, meeting Asra’s surprised purple eyes. Joaquin slapped a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing at the sight of Faust wrapped around Julian’s throat.  
“Squeezes?”  
“Nnnggg…what?” Julian wheezed, opening his eyes.  
“Let me just…” Asra said, trailing off as his uncoiled Faust.  
“What the fuck!?”  
Joaquin howled with laughter, putting his face down in the sheets to muffle the sound.  
“It’s not funny,” Julian said, blushing furiously. “I didn’t know! I—”  
“Shhh,” Asra hissed, kissing along the red marks that Faust had left behind. “We’ll just have to put something else here to keep her off.”  
Joaquin, his laughing fit over, looking up with marked interest. “Oh?” he asked. Asra had yet to participate when he and Julian got kinky. Asra tilted Julian head back and started nibbling his neck, looking down and Joaquin with hooded eyes. “You’ve got a collar for this dog, don’t you Joaquin?”  
“Oh, god,” Julian moaned. Joaquin grinned and rose to his feet. He padded barefoot to the closet, shedding clothes as he went. He retrieved Julian’s leather collar and chain from their drawer and turned.  
Asra watched him over Julian’s shoulder with steady, hungry eyes. Julian, thighs spread, cock hard and upright, leaned back against Asra. He caught his lip between his teeth as Asra spread him further with his fingers.  
“Fuck,” Joaquin breathed, rubbing his hand over his own throbbing erection. “You’re both so god damn beautiful,” he said, stalking back to the bed. He climbed up in front of Julian, catching him in a kiss, tasting the salt of his sweat on his lips. He fixed the collar around his throat and cinched it tight. Then, holding the chain in one hand, he scooted back to the end of the bed. “My turn,” he growled, yanking on the chain. Julian gave a throaty gasp and allowed himself to be jerked on his hands and knees across the bed. Once he was close enough, Joaquin grabbed the collar and pulled him down towards his cock.  
Julian wrapped his lips around the dark head and Joaquin let out a low hiss. He jerked Julian’s collar, and Julian swallowed the rest down without hesitation, throat opening with practiced ease.  
“Don’t think you can forget about me,” Asra said, appearing behind Julian as Joaquin panted on the pillows. He molded his body to Julian’s, pressing against him. Julian moaned around Joaquin’s cock, the vibration making his hips buck just as Asra pushed inside of Julian.  
They rocked together, pleasure mounting with each stroke and thrust. Asra leaned into Julian’s back, opening his mouth and sinking his teeth into his shoulder. Julian gasped and groaned around Joaquin’s cock, relishing the Asra’s teeth, the collar digging into his neck, the feel of them both inside of him. Joaquin bucked against Julian’s face, barely able to keep his eyes open for ecstasy but desperately wanting to see his two beautiful men lined up before him.  
Joaquin felt himself tighten, and knew that he couldn’t last much longer. Somehow he knew that Asra was right there with him, and when they finally succumbed Julian wasn’t far behind.  
Asra slid down, pulling Julian with him, and Joaquin slumped down into the pillows. He buried him hands in Julian’s damp hair. Julian shook him off and shifted forward, hugging Joaquin around his thigh and resting his head on his stomach as Asra hugged him from behind.  
They lay still, breathing in the cloud of cinnamon and sex that lay over them.  
“I missed you guys,” Joaquin finally sighed. He scooted down lower on the bed, to better hold them both. Julian sighed happily and turned over on his back, stroking Asra and Joaquin in tandem. “I think we missed you more,” he said.  
“Oh?” Joaquin said, titling his head at Asra for confirmation. “You two seem to be getting on just fine.”  
Asra smiled. “Do we need to prove it to you?”  
“What, again?”  
Julian grinned and kissed Joaquin on the cheek. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do, remember.”  
“Point,” Joaquin agreed. He rested his head on Julian’s shoulder. “Give me a few minutes, then it’s my turn in the middle.”  
Eventually, they went back downstairs and ate the pumpkin bread. Eventually.


End file.
